OIl sludge

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Thu 4 Jan 2001 11:39
OIl sludge - andy sampson
My 95 ford fiesta 1.1LX appears to use a lot of oil, I can see no leaks, it does not appear to burn any oil but it does have a oil sludge problem, it is reguarly serviced and doesnt do short runs.

I have changed the oil filler/breather cap (i.e. crankcase ventilation) to solve the sludge problem but this hasn't made any difference.

The car itself runs perfect I'm just fed up with putting oil in all the time!!!!

Any idea's what to try next or is this a common problem with the HCS engine?
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Thu 4 Jan 2001 20:26
RE: OIl sludge - Marcus Bancroft
Sorry Andy its a common problem, these engines are often, though not always finished after 50 - 70 000 miles, due to wear in the bores and piston rings. a compression test will uncover this. yours has a Cat fitted so the tell tale smoky exhaust will not be so obvious as on a pre 92 car. it is not an expensive job by any means to fit a recon unit, incidentally this engine is essentially the same as the " Kent " unit fitted to the Ford Anglia. various Escorts and all Fiestas since 1976, you should easily get one in a breakers, - the current Ka and some fiesta models use the same block in a 1.3 litre capacity.

finally sometimes if you overfill the engine with Oil, it gets whipped up into a mousse by the bottom end and can cause difficulties and falling oil pressire. You don't say what colour the sludge is, if it is a whitish milky colour, this indicates that the oil is mixing with the coolant and and points to a failed head gasket.
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Fri 5 Jan 2001 11:36
RE: OIl sludge - Honest John
Dear Andy,

Marcus is right. I've had a short run Mk 1 Fiesta knacker with bore wear at around 25,000 miles. But there is a specific oil breather problem with these engines which we've dealt with before. Can't remember the exact details, but someone else is sure to.

Could well be that the same problem will affect the Ford Ka. I've auction bought catalysed 1.3 pushrod Fiestas and been apalled at the lack of performance.

HJ
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Sun 7 Jan 2001 21:03
RE: OIl sludge - John Slaughter
Couldn't agree more. I've had a couple of push rod Fiestas, and I've never known cars sludge up oil faster, even with 3000 mile oil changes. And, yes, one had high oil consumption and worn bores at just over 20k.

I also owned a 1.3 catalysed Fiesta and it was unbelievably slow and thirsty, compared to the earlier carburetor car. I just didn't believe the spec which claimed virtually identical power and fuel consumption. Surely Ford's biggest mistake is not using the 1.25 Zetec in the Ka?

Regards

John
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